DETAILS OF FATAL FALL OF MARKKANEN'S LITTLE BOY

An update from journalist Peter Adler, who talked with his Russian contacts on the tragic death of four-year-old Olli Markkanen, son of pro hockey player Jussi Markkanen, the ex-Edmonton Oiler now playing in Moscow for CSKA:

Sanna-maria, wife of Jussi Markkanen, left the kids, Olli-mathias and Juho, in the living room for a few minutes … Juho ran into the kitchen, crying that Olli had fallen out of the window … Sanna-maria ran into the living room and saw a broken window and the anti-insect netting torn … She saw Olli down on the pavement, motionless, ran downstairs, called for an ambulance, and later collapsed …News coming from Moscow now has Olli, 4, falling out of a sixth-floor (fifth-floor in North America) window.

“We have provided Jussi with a car and a driver, and an interpreter,” said CSKA manager Kiril Fastovskii, “He will have to go through a number of official negotiations, including a visit to the morgue.”

The club does not expect Markkanen to return to play any time soon … They have called up a spare goalie …Meanwhile, CSKA head coach Vyacheslav Bykov, said the club would understand if Markkanen never comes back to CSKA …“It is, of course, a personal and private tragedy,” Bykov told the Sovetskii Sport newspaper in an interview. “But, at the same time, the tragedy has had a huge impact on the entire team’s psychological state. Many of our players have families, after all. We all compare these terrible circumstances to our personal lives (experiences) and are in shock. it will not be easy to get over this … For all of us. the CSKA has done everything to help Jussi. Here, we don’t need to blush. Our specialists have been giving him and will continue providing him with all the help he might need. We won’t let him face it all by himself.”

Olli Markkanen’s funeral takes place this week in Finland.“Jussi and his family are leaving the day after tomorrow, or even tomorrow,” Bykov said. “We have already got the tickets. I plan to talk to Jussi in private tomorrow. Certainly, one can’t say much. The heart is aching. i will try to convey to Jussi our sympathies. His family, it’s our family, too. We will accept whatever decision he takes. Your home and your family, that’s more important than any carreer. if he decides not to come back, it’s his right. for the time being, Jussi is on an unlimited (paid) leave. when he is able to, he will get in touch with us and tell us of his further plans. we will wait,” Bykov said.

In Edmonton, the Journal’s Jim Matheson reports that Markkanen’s old teammates and friends are sharing in his grief.

“For the first time ever in my life I was thinking of other things on the ice during the game of hockey (Monday),” said centre Shawn Horcoff, whose mind was half a world away during Monday’s game versus Vancouver.

He’s got kids like Markkanen, and it broke his heart, Matheson writes. “For the four or five of us who’ve been with Jussi for the two times he played for the Oilers, this is devastating. We grew up with those kids (Olli and Juho). I have a daughter who’s only five months younger than Olli,” said Horcoff.

“You can’t even begin to put this (tragedy) into words. You don’t even know where to start with Jussi, to help him ease the pain.”

But what does it mean? Here’s what . . . McCurdy has looked at the positions that each of the top 12 Oilers forwards is used to playing, then slotted each player in where MacTavish intends to play then. Here are MacT’s line combos, with all of his out-of-position players:

So Erik Cole, Sam Gagner, Fernando Pisani, Dustin Penner, and Marc Pouliot are all slotted to be playing out of their most comfortable position.

Is there a method to this madness? Wouldn’t it be easier must to play Brodziak at third line center, and slip Moreau down to the fourth energy line?

These questions aren’t likely crucial, as MacT’s line combinations are like the Alberta weather. Wait a few hours and you’ll get something completely different.

* ITEM: HOW TO SCORE AN NHL FIGHT: BROWN VS. GRIMSON

A reader sent me a link from Dropyourgloves.com explaining how they work out their winning percentages for NHL fighters.

I was wondering because the site’s winning percentages didn’t make any sense to me.

For instance, Dave Brown, the former Oiler who handed out perhaps the most one-sided beating of another enforcer, Calgary’s Stu Grimson, that I have ever seen, is said to have had 186 career fights, with his rated fights coming out as 101 wins, 19 losses and 32 ties. Somehow all this comes out to a 61 per cent winning percentage.

If you go by wins against total number of fights then Brown had a 54 per cent winning percentage.

If you go by 101 wins against 19 losses, then Brown had an 81 per cent winning percentage.

Neither of those numbers is 61 per cent. But here is how the site figures its percentages: “The Winning Per centage (Average Outcome) is c alculated as follows: each Narrow Win counts as 60%, Clear Win 70%, Decisive Win 80%, Win by TKO 85%, Win by KO 95%. The total for each fight is then divided by the number of reviews. Then the grand total is further divided by the number of fights. Winning Percentage is therefore different from the Win-Loss record which is immediately above it in the table. For example, a player can have a winning Win-Loss record (5-4-2) and a losing Winning Percentage (48%) at the same time if most of his wins are narrow while most of his losses are heavy.”

OK. You got that?

The famous and grim beating of the Grim Reaper, by the way, happened on January 9, 1991, according to the site. Two days earlier, in Edmonton, Grimson and Brown had fought twice, with Grimson apparently winning both tilts, though not many punches were thrown and both fights were close.

Grimson was left with some broken bones in his face. Not such an easy job being an NHL tough guy, clearly. At Dropyourgloves.com, one of the fight fans who rated the fight said, “At the end, he glares at the Calgary bench, as if to say, ‘Next?’”

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